Prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) has decided to cancel the appointment of a notorious islamophobe as a deputy member of Reykjavík’s Human Rights Council.
According to Gústaf Adolf Níelsson, who has shown steady hostility towards Muslims and gay rights, the Progressive Party's leader in the capital, Sveinbjörg Birna Sveinbjörnsdóttir, contacted him in December and asked him to take on the post as the party’s deputy in the council.
Gústaf told mbl.is the offer came as a surprise as he's a member of the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), but he decided to accept her offer after Sveinbjörg Birna praised articles he had written for newspaper Morgunblaðið.
Some prominent members of the Progressive Party met Gústaf’s appointment with outrage. Among them are foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson and minister of social affairs Eygló Harðardóttir who demanded the decision to be turned over. “Gústaf’s appointment is unacceptable,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
At noon today the representatives of the Progressive Party in Reykjavík city council issued a statement saying that Gústaf's appointment had been a mistake and had been withdrawn.
Prime minister Sigmundur Davíð, the chairman of the Progressive Party, has said that he met with the council members to discuss this mistake. However, he has neither addressed the principles behind appointing Gústaf in the first place nor denounced his hate speech like the ministers mentioned above.
Read more: MP branded ignorant by fellow Independence Party member
During campaigning before the municipal elections last spring Sveinbjörg Birna, the Progressive Party´s leader in the capital, stated that the construction permit for Iceland‘s first Mosque should be withdrawn and re-voted on in a public referendum. Following her remarks, support for the Progressive Party in Reykjavik increased, helping the party capture two of the fifteen council seats in the elections.
We at Iceland Insider say:
The Progressive Party is increasingly leaning towards views that are in common with the successful xenophobic and populist parties in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Those parties, the Swedish Democrats, the Finns Party (True Finns) and the Danish People's Party all stoke anger directed at immigrants and international cooperation.
Regrettably we have seen voters in those other Nordic countries give up to 20% support to those parties. It looks like the Progressive Party is interested to feed and meet a similar demand in Iceland.
Prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) has decided to cancel the appointment of a notorious islamophobe as a deputy member of Reykjavík’s Human Rights Council.
According to Gústaf Adolf Níelsson, who has shown steady hostility towards Muslims and gay rights, the Progressive Party's leader in the capital, Sveinbjörg Birna Sveinbjörnsdóttir, contacted him in December and asked him to take on the post as the party’s deputy in the council.
Gústaf told mbl.is the offer came as a surprise as he's a member of the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), but he decided to accept her offer after Sveinbjörg Birna praised articles he had written for newspaper Morgunblaðið.
Some prominent members of the Progressive Party met Gústaf’s appointment with outrage. Among them are foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson and minister of social affairs Eygló Harðardóttir who demanded the decision to be turned over. “Gústaf’s appointment is unacceptable,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
At noon today the representatives of the Progressive Party in Reykjavík city council issued a statement saying that Gústaf's appointment had been a mistake and had been withdrawn.
Prime minister Sigmundur Davíð, the chairman of the Progressive Party, has said that he met with the council members to discuss this mistake. However, he has neither addressed the principles behind appointing Gústaf in the first place nor denounced his hate speech like the ministers mentioned above.
Read more: MP branded ignorant by fellow Independence Party member
During campaigning before the municipal elections last spring Sveinbjörg Birna, the Progressive Party´s leader in the capital, stated that the construction permit for Iceland‘s first Mosque should be withdrawn and re-voted on in a public referendum. Following her remarks, support for the Progressive Party in Reykjavik increased, helping the party capture two of the fifteen council seats in the elections.
We at Iceland Insider say:
The Progressive Party is increasingly leaning towards views that are in common with the successful xenophobic and populist parties in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Those parties, the Swedish Democrats, the Finns Party (True Finns) and the Danish People's Party all stoke anger directed at immigrants and international cooperation.
Regrettably we have seen voters in those other Nordic countries give up to 20% support to those parties. It looks like the Progressive Party is interested to feed and meet a similar demand in Iceland.
